


A Brief History of South Korean Figure Skating

by chaoticrandomness



Series: The World of Figure Skating [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Real Events, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-13
Updated: 2015-08-13
Packaged: 2018-04-14 12:39:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4565016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticrandomness/pseuds/chaoticrandomness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A history of South Korean figure skating from 2002 to 2015, told by their nation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Brief History of South Korean Figure Skating

He finds out about the little star in 2002, when the KSF sends him a report that's not on short-track for the first time in who knows how long, to tell him that a twelve-year-old named Yuna Kim won the novice event at the Triglav Trophy and defeated a pair of Americans. 

 

(Absolutely no one has any idea what's going to happen in eight years. Including himself.) 

 

He actually sees her skate two years later, when she wins the Junior Grand Prix in Hungary and a local fan puts a video on the internet of her freeskate. 

 

(This girl is amazing. Even someone who mostly cares about short-track figure skating can see that. She even invented a spin position!) 

 

Shizuka Arakawa may have won the World Championships, and when everyone else talks about juniors, their eyes turn to Mao Asada. But he's finally got a star on his hands, and he's going to defeat Japan. 

 

He's sure of it. 

 

* * *

 

 

One season and five medals later, the world is at least cognizant of his star. Unfortunately, she's still in the shadow of Japan, and he didn't qualify any slots for the Olympics.

 

(Yuna Kim isn't actually old enough for the event, so this doesn't bother him all that much. Neither is Mao Asada, Japan's newest star who is twenty days younger than his.

 

She seems like a perfectly nice girl, but he despises her solely on principle. The feeling is mutual. 

 

Why should the world clamor for the age rules to be changed just because of a little Japanese girl?!) 

 

With her greatest rival on the senior circuit, his star proceeds to absolutely dominate the junior one, winning all of her events and landing triple-triple combinations in every single competition. 

 

(Japan may have won the Olympics, but that event was an anti-climatic splatfest. In contrast, his star defeated Asada by twenty-five points at Junior Worlds, and didn't fall a single time. 

 

Unfortunately, neither one of them seems aware of their roles in this little rivalry, and they're actually pretty friendly towards one another.) 

 

* * *

 

 

Yuna Kim moves to Canada to train with Brian Orser right before her debut on the senior level. 

 

(With this debut comes a new maturity. There are times when he watches her, and notices how her every movement oozes musicality.) 

 

It doesn't matter that the three Grand Prix medals come coupled with errors in her freeskate and back pain that's screwing up her sitspins. As long as she's still in one piece and beautifully defeating Japan, nothing else matters. 

 

Unfortunately, a herniated disk forces her to withdraw from a competition that she's guaranteed to win. However, she stills break the world record short program score on Japanese soil with an electrifying tango that forces the entire world to take notice of her.

 

(If she wasn't injured and not in Japan, would she have won the event? He has no idea why the judges declared one of her combinations invalid, and Asada's short program was overscored.) 

 

The same thing happens the next season, which begins with three Grand Prix wins and one seven-triple program, before abruptly getting derailed by a hip injury and thoughts of retirement and a whirlwind of time spent training in her home nation...

 

(He's in the middle of every crowd of children that watch her skate, the children who desire to follow in her footsteps. The media calls these children the Yunakids.) 

 

2008 ends the same way as 2007, with another bronze World medal. Asada wins the gold despite falling on her triple axel and flutzing and having ugly costumes, and Japan is fighting with Italy when the event ends over Yukari Nakano. 

 

(Personally, he thinks that they're all overscored. Except for his star.) 

 

* * *

 

 

An uninjured Yuna Kim is an awe-inspiring Yuna Kim. 

 

She begins the season playing Death and Scheherazade in America, and ends the season in the same way. In between, she breaks her own short program records twice and Asada's freeskate record once and wins every event by massive margins. 

 

(When she skates, she grabs her audience with her movements and forces them to watch her spin her intricate stories. He is not immune to her, and neither is anyone else. 

 

Japan is at least aware that Asada lacks this ability, which is why he uses his connections to ensure that she's overscored and has people obstruct his star and turns the internet into a massive troll battleground.) 

 

As the Olympics come, she is the undisputed favorite for the gold. At her best, no skater alive can come anywhere near her. 

 

* * *

 

 

The Olympic season begins with a bang when she blows away Asada in France by thirty-six points and shatters her own world records with beautiful programs. 

 

(She makes it look so effortless, like she's just elegantly floating over the ice and any random person in the audience. 

 

He has never figure skated ever. But, he supposes that it'd be best to try before his star leaves.) 

 

Unfortunately, she starts slipping, losing Skate America's freeskate to a random American and the Grand Prix Final's short program to a ridiculously boring Miki Ando. Talk of pressure and overly-high expectations and the curse of the Olympic favorite surround her, along with discussion of her triple flip problems and biased technical callers...

 

(There is nothing wrong with her triple flip. Japan just bribed the technical caller, and Asada didn't even make it to the Grand Prix Final.) 

 

Asada wins the 2010 Japanese Nationals and 2010 Four Continents Championships, and this whole mess leads towards him sitting in front of the TV in the meeting-room during the Olympic ladies' event while curled up into a tiny ball and debating whether to watch or hide. 

 

(Japan isn't faring any better, though.) 

 

* * *

 

 

Yuna Kim wins the 2010 Winter Olympics by a margin of twenty-three points with the two best programs anyone's performed in recent memory, and no one can doubt her victory. 

 

(Not even Japan.

 

While the last Olympic champion will be remembered as only winning due to being the least bad out of everyone, this one will be seen as one of the greats.) 

 

When she wins and the South Korean national anthem plays on the podium, he is euphoric. For the next few days, he is the happiest man in the world. 

 

* * *

 

 

His star leaves Canada and goes back home after the Olympics, and discussions of retirement and shows surround her. 

 

(The unspoken question is this cavalcade is what happens to the Korean figure skating program after Yuna Kim retires. Is there even anyone else left?)

 

Of the Yunakids, Minjeong Kwak finished thirteenth at the Olympics and Haejin Kim won the 2010 Triglav Trophy, defeating a pair of Japanese novices. There's also Soyoun Park and Hojung Lee further down the pipeline, and he's sure more of them will eventually show up. 

 

Yuna Kim takes the season off and performs a love letter to her nation in shows. Haejin Kim undergoes surgery and injures her foot and finishes 28th at her Junior Grand Prix event, while Minjeong Kwak begins to fall down the standings and everything goes back to normal. 

 

(But then Yuna Kim comes back and loses the 2011 World Championships to the most boring set of programs ever performed by a female skater.) 

 

* * *

 

 

The Yunakids have massive shoes to fill. But they're improving every day, and at least one of them is going to end up somewhere near her level. 

 

(He hasn't really paid much attention to men's skating, but apparently some of the Yunakids are male. Maybe one of them will do the same thing to men's skating as she did to ladies?) 

 

His skaters win eleven medals at the Asian Figure Skating Trophy held at the season's beginning, so they're getting somewhere. Haejin Kim attempts triple flip-triple loop and triple toeloop-triple toeloop combinations in her programs, while Dabin Choi wins the novice event with large jumps. On the Junior Grand Prix circuit, Haejin wins a bronze medal and a short program, while Soyoun Park finishes in the top ten of her events and Junehyoung Lee becomes the first South Korean man to win a Junior Grand Prix event. 

 

As 2011 fades into 2012, Jinseo Kim comes back from an ear injury and both Soyoun and Haejin do well at the Youth Olympics and the Junior World Championships. All of them medal at a Junior Grand Prix event, and the future looks bright. 

 

(Then Yuna Kim announces that she's coming back for Sochi and blows away the competition at the NRW Trophy with a pair of refined programs.) 

 

* * *

 

Yuna Kim  _will_ become the third woman to defend her Olympic title. After only competing at a single competition, she blows away the field of ladies at the 2013 World Championships and wins a second World gold. 

 

(This woman is a trailblazer. An innovative skater whose performances have achieved transcendence.)

 

Due to a minor injury, she only skates at a single competition before the Olympics, but blows everyone away there with her final set of competitive programs.

 

(An elegant and melancholic swan song. The perfect ending for his perfect star.)

 

So what if she doesn't have a triple loop and has weak layback spins due to her injuries? She's still the clear favorite, and no one else is  _anywhere_ near her level. As the Sochi ladies' event begins, he is completely confident in her ability to win.  

 

Yuna Kim skates a pair of elegant and mature programs, every movement dripping artistry. As she finishes her freeskate, he  _knows_  that she's going to win. 

 

(And then she finishes second to Adelina Sotnikova and everything goes to hell.) 

 

* * *

 

 

He already hates Russia over his brother and the Hyunsoo Ahn mess, but he now wants to murder him. 

 

(You had to cheat your way to gold, didn't you? Well, I'll grab that stupid pipe of yours and bludgeon you to death, for the world knows what you did to get that fucking medal and absolutely no one is going to care when they see your dead body hanging from the ceiling...) 

 

Adelina Sotnikova skates the world's worst gala program ever and immediately retires, and he begins to calm down. He still has the Yunakids, and they need the unconditional support of their nation. 

 

* * *

 

 

Yuna Kim is an ambassador now, working with the UN and IOC to ensure a better world. 

 

Soyoun Park has a triple salchow-triple toeloop combination, and Dabin Choi has a triple flip-triple toeloop. Junehyoung Lee earned a bronze and a gold at his Junior Grand Prix events, and became the first South Korean man to qualify for its final. Junhwan Cha is still young, but the internet is abuzz with his national bronze medalist, and there are still more of them in the pipeline, if one looks close enough. 

 

The future is safe with the Yunakids. He's sure of it. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> South Korea is a bit of a crazy Yuna-bot. Should I post videos with this series?


End file.
